The event was also used to commemorate the President’s appointment as the co-Chair of the Advocacy Group of Eminent Persons for SDGs.

The committee is chaired by the Minister of Planning, Professor George Gyan-Baffour, with the other members being the ministers of Trade and Industry, Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Finance, Food and Agriculture and Justice and Attorney General.

Others are the ministers of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Monitoring and Evaluation and Education.

The rest are Health, Sanitation and Water Resources, Local Government and Rural Development, Gender, Children and Social Protection, Employment and Labour Relations and Fisheries and Aquaculture.

Inaugurating the committee, President Akufo-Addo pledged to mobilise the strong political will and support towards the successful implementation of the SDGs in Ghana to address the problems of poverty and gender biases.

His efforts, he said, would also be targeted at building strong representative institutions to stimulate inclusive economic growth and combat the effects of climate change.

Such a move, he said, was the surest guarantee that presented the current generation with the great opportunity to fight inequality on all fronts, wipe out extreme poverty, tackle the issues of climate change and reverse the degradation and unsustainable use of our environmental resources.

President Akufo-Addo said Ghana had taken up the challenge of the SDGs and captured them in the government’s co-ordinated programme for economic and social development policies which he would present to Parliament during its next session in October.

“We are committed to leaving no one behind. The programmes and policies that have been outlined in our co-ordinated programme are all hinged towards the realisation of the SDGs, both at the national and the local levels,” he added.

SDGs

The President said he SDGs were intended to be the boldest and loudest articulation of a collective ambition for development that the world had ever seen.

The goals, he said, had helped focus the world’s attention on a common agenda of development and they provided a unique opportunity to transform the world, protect the planet and bring prosperity to all by diligently implementing the SDGs.

He said achieving the SDGs could, therefore, not be business as usual, stressing the need to be creative and innovative and find smart approaches to accelerate implementation in the context of Ghana’s domestic agenda.

Both the Majority and the Minority Leaders in Parliament who delivered addresses at the function stressed the national importance of the SDGs.

They, therefore, pledged total support in making the realisation of the SDGs possible for the benefit of all Ghanaians.

Under the 17 SDGs, countries are expected to put measures in place to end poverty in all its forms everywhere, end hunger, achieve food security, ensure inclusive and equitable quality education, among other targets.